Text Size

-

+

reset

“When the bell rings, all able-bodied men and women who can come and work to try to save the Senate is the idea,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), who credits Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) for giving the group its nickname.

“There’s a growing number of us on both sides of the aisle that would like to see the Senate work better, and we understand the leaders by themselves can’t do that,” Alexander said. “And we’ll have to help them do that.”

The group’s first call of duty came after Monday evening votes when senators went one-by-one to the floor to say they “support” calls from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to move spending bills through regular order between the spring and the fall — rather than cobble them together in one massive year-end omnibus package, which has become the norm in Congress.?

If it sounds hokey, that’s sort of the point. The Senate has increasingly become a body of hardened partisan lines where each side tries to outmaneuver the other to score political points. And there’s a growing desire among a group of senators to bring back the camaraderie of yesteryear — when senators weren’t consumed with non-stop fundraising and constant travel back to their states and when some of their closest friendships were from across the aisle.

With Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Alexander has organized a series of dinners at the exclusive Alibi Club in downtown Washington, where large bipartisan gatherings offer the opportunity to shoot the breeze about current events and their social lives at a “no-agenda” affair.

And with Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Tennessee Republican has transformed a sleepy room in the Senate known as the Inner Sanctum into a full-fledged hangout during afternoon votes, where senators gather for hors d’oeuvres and drinks not far from the Senate floor.

There are well more than dozen members in this latest group, and several came down to the floor Monday evening to call for the 12 annual bills to move one-by-one through Congress, including Graham, Sens. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) and John Boozman (R-Ark.).

“There is not a grand plan here,” said Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), who helped organize the speeches. “We just want to try to thank the leaders for what they’ve done but also encourage the Senate to function better and to take care of the nuts and bolts of governing like we should.”

Getting the chamber to change its ways is a tall task — no matter what the group calls itself.

But Alexander — who resigned his Senate leadership position this year — said the new group is aimed at building a critical mass behind “all who can come help” and draw attention to a specific problem.

I campaigned for Lamar in both 1996 and 2000 presidential elections. The reason - exactly what his is doing here – trying to get things done. Unfortunately drug addicts hucksters like Limbaugh did everything to stop him. Lamar would not take orders form them – orders that increase hate radio market share while polarizing the country. The result – we got Dole and Bush. God speed Lamar….

This group should start with Harry Reid who uses his position to hit Romney on the floor of the Senate, I don't think this is really Senate business. He is campaigning for Obama and not doing the work he needs to do like passing a budget. Schumer is another big mouth who needs to show some civility but then he is the mouthpiece for Harry Reid.

What an interesting idea. Even more than teaching the current Senate civility and bipartisanship, what if we take a look at which of them are actually doing what they were elected to do? Contrary to the understanding of those 'standing with the 99%,' Washington has no intention of fixing any problems within Wall Street - they've been in bed with them (on both sides) for generations, and have rigged things in the personal favor of their insider trading and political donors in the forms of tax exemption and government money. According to the recent book, "Throw them all out," a strong majority of the corruption is on the Democrat side. Obama himself has more campaign cash from Wall Street than all the GOP contenders combined. We absolutely need to look for politicians - on both sides- who recognize the culture of corruption in Washington bringing us headlong into financial crisis, and who have the character to withstand Washington's corruption and change things for the citizens of the country. We shouldn't be distracted by the partisan bickering in Washington and be partisan ourselves, that will hardly help the problem.